Penzance Business Improvement District goes to the vote

It's an interesting time in the town of Penzance, the Neighbourhood Plan process is being launched and has a great new website here and business in the town centre are going to vote on becoming a Business Improvement District (BID). It's easy to assume that people know what a BID is, it's been well publicised in the local press and a consultation has taken place with the businesses in the area. However there are a lot of people that are not aware this is going on and they really should, because it's an important development in the town and although I have a number of reservations about the structure and process, I think it could be a very good thing for Penzance.

As a short description a BID imposes a levy on business (2% on top of rates in our case). It then takes that money and uses it for the good of the area and specifically the businesses in it. There's a lot more information on the process in Penzance and the plans on the BID website here. There are some really interesting ideas for the town and how to improve it in the plan. The process is coming to the end and after consultation sessions, it has now come to the vote. The rules for the vote are quite simple businesses are asked whether they support a Business Improvement District yes or no. Then if there are more than 50% indicating yes and of those they represent more than 50% of the rateable value of all votes cast. Then it comes into being on the first of June.

On the one hand I think this is a very good thing, if passed the BID will run for five years and have a total budget of £800,00 for that period. That is a lot of money and it will mark one of the most major investments in the town centre for a long long time. It also represents a great opportunity for businesses to come together and work towards solutions, which should have benefits wider than the BID itself.

On the other hand the whole of the BID set up, is part of a growing and in my opinion (and that of MK) a worrying trend in public spending in recent years. The BID is a not for profit company, much like Local Enterprise Partnerships and NHS Trusts, they are not democratically elected by the people, they are not accountable to the people. I write this with some caution I know a few of the members of the BID steering group and I don't mean this as a personal reflection on them or their motives or judgement. However it is a worrying trend to removing democratically representatives from the decision making and spending process.

As with all votes, I hope there is good turn out for the BID's postal ballots. I hope that all of the businesses in the proposed area take a great deal of time to consider the merits of the BID process and the business plan that has been written. There is great potential with that amount of money but there is also a great cost, it might only be 2% of rates on top but nevertheless it is another cost. We live in interesting times!

N.B The Penzance Town Council has no part of the BID process, the BID Steering Group choose not to have a town council representative.

My thoughts to the Penzance Chamber of Commerce

Last night the Penzance Chamber of Commerce invited candidates from across the spectrum to speak to them. Credit to them it's good to see a lot of interest in this election I learnt a great deal about business in the town and the thoughts and concerns of businesses. All of the political parties and 2 independents were invited to give their thoughts on policies and priorities if elected. Phil Rendle was busy on town council business so I represented Mebyon Kernow and spoke on my thoughts and what the parties manifesto offers business and trade in Penzance. The question put to candidates was this:

“What will you/your party do to help the economy of Penzance and what will your priorities be.”

I didn't actually write anything to read out, I've not spoken much in public before, but I have learnt after speaking to a politics conference in Redruth that reading things from bits of paper is not the best approach. Also I was a bit concerned that if I wrote something, I'd simply be repeating what others had already said. There was a lot of agreement among the speakers about the need to protect jobs in the town, see our fair share of investment, to work together as politicians and as representatives of Penzance Town Council and/ or Cornwall Council. I decided to not make empty hollow promises about attracting investment, providing jobs. I want to be elected on May the second and I want to be reelected in four years time, empty promises won't help me at this stage.

So I spoke about devolution and picked some points from Mebyon Kernow's manifesto and how they applied to Penzance. Here's the gist of what I said with some of the points expanded upon.. The party believes in devolution to Cornwall and within Cornwall. We lost a lot of jobs and influence with the unitary process. We now have a council up in Truro that holds sway, decisions there are made by a handful of people and officers. We've seen with 'localism' toilets and cctv passed down to the town with a reduced budget. We need to turn this on it's head, we should be approaching Cornwall Council and asking for things, preempting this process. Take for example car parks, currently run from Truro and badly so. Some do really well and others are empty most of the time. We need to be deciding here in Penzance the pricing plans to fill all of the car parks, to decide fares that will bring people to the town. It's just one example, there are others parks etc, decisions that need to be decided here by people elected, accountable and crucially listening to the people of Penzance.

I was a bit disappointed that at of all the people that spoke last night, I was the only one to mention the LEP (Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership). I think there's a lot of people that don't understand what the LEP is and lots that don't actually knows what it does. It should be a key part of policy it ought to be driving the economy of Cornwall and I think in this it is failing. It ought to be an election issue in my opinion, I struggle to understand why it's not. Anyway I spoke about Mebyon Kernow's manifesto idea to make the body accountable to the people of Cornwall by changing the leadership to democratically elected politicians. I said that someone needed to grab the LEP by the scruff of the neck and make it realise that the economy of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly doesn't begin and end at Newquay airport. They should be looking to stimulate all of the Cornish economy, especially here in the west.

The LEP and Cornwall Council should be looking to not only bring in new business but also to champion what we do have. Penzance ought to be the shopping hub of Penwith, we need to stop people going to Truro and elsewhere to shop and encourage them back here. Despite claims we are a retail graveyard we have great assets in Penzance and a great town center. There are great places to eat and drink in the town you can buy fresh veg, fruit, fish and meat, the finest produce. We need to champion these things, we need to be positive about the town and encourage a positive image of it. I didn't say but I ought to have said last night. That it's all well and good talking about bringing jobs and investment to Penzance and making promises without plans to set these things in motion. One of the reasons Penzance town center is fading and we struggle to fill shops is because people don't shop here anymore, yes high business rates and rents play their part. But it's not just about costs it's about a lack of shoppers and money to bring shops to the town. We need to turn things around, what we need people to read in papers is that Penzance is a great place to shop loads of great independent shops, not that it's a retail graveyard or that it's on the tipping point. (I was happy when some of the shopkeepers spoke to me afterwards and expressed the same opinions and despair at the effect on their livelihoods of negative attitudes.)

I also spoke very briefly about tendering. At the moment Penzance skate park is being rebuilt which is great. But the company who is doing the work -much like the ones demolishing the heliport ;(- have come down from up country to do the work. We are literally exporting jobs, all of the parties have spoken this election about protecting Cornish jobs, sourcing more locally from council funds, but how? is my question. We live in a world dictated by public tenders whereby the lowest/ highest bidder usually wins My solution is that we need to be educating Cornish firms about the tendering process, pointing out how to win tenders. It won't be easy to change the system but if we really want to protect Cornish jobs and support Cornish tradesman we need to give them a helping hand to win tenders.

That was the gist of it, people clapped and other candidates looked a bit surprised that I had spoken so strongly and so honestly. Some of the other parties have written me off as a non-contender, I continue to prove them wrong and I do believe I offer something different to the people of Penzance East. I won't sell false promises but I and Mebyon Kernow offer clear ideas to how we can make fundamental changes in local government and make Cornwall Council and the LEP work harder for the Cornish economy.

Will the Cornish LEP learn from the mistakes of the RDA?

The government plans to scrap the South West Regional Development Agency and create a Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Economic Partnership presents a great opportunity to rethink economic policy in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and to take charge of our own destinies. The RDA was geographically distant and democratically not accountable to the people of Cornwall, this resulted in the body being out of touch with public opinion. Economic solutions were delivered from above with little or no meaningful public consultation and regard for the communities involved. This approach must be resisted in creeping into the new LEP. Which hopefully will have a more bottom up approach to policy and planning and seek to foster stronger relations with the public and business communities.

There are many criticisms to be made of the RDA, bad investment decisions such as the Border Books distribution center in St Columb, which had attracted a 3.5 million investment to open. The folding of the South West Film Studios at St Agnes, which resulted in the director being imprisoned on fraud charges, for the 1.87 million of RDA funding.  Also the failed Gaia Energy Center at Delabole, a tourist attraction which had attracted 5 million in RDA funding. The Helston Business Park rounds off the failed ventures of Cornish Objective One money, attracting 2.6 million in RDA investment and has laid empty for three years. Whether the fault in these cases lies with the RDA, economic realities or other factors is beside the point. They are symptomatic of the RDA's insistence in bringing new business into Cornwall and the ignorance shown toward existing businesses and industry. Of course new business should always be sought, but there are often reasons why some businesses have grown organically and others have not. It should never have been the job of the RDA to invest Cornish Objective Money in such a reckless way. There were some successes of the RDA such as the Eden Project and the National Maritime Museum which both tapped into the existing industry of tourism. The University Campus at Tremough in Penryn which had tapped into a long term tangible need for degree level education in Cornwall. (We'll skip over the subsidy given to the Department of Transport for the A30 improvements).

It should be the job of the LEP not only to look to the new but also to foster and support the old. It is no good letting the perpetual Cornish industries of farming and fishing and mining fall by the wayside while bureaucrats experiment with introducing new business and industry. My point is that the RDA sought to impose solutions from above, this resulted in patchy performance and did little to support existing industry and business. Politically too the same approach prevailed in the RDA, far off in Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, unelected bureaucrats (and a handful of token councillors) and the seemingly obligatory consultants envisaged grand schemes of redevelopment with no regard for the local area or existing tried and tested business and industry.
The prime example of this was South Crofty, closed in 1998 due to costs and regulation, rather than mineral exhaustion. Many hoped that the advent of Objective One money could be used to reopen the mine, to utilise the natural resources of Cornwall and the skills and ingenuity of the Cornish people to create decent jobs and bring money into the area. However this was not to be even when a new concern bought the mine the RDA for years and years spent what must have been a great deal of time and money, drafting plans to bulldoze the surface structures and to redevelop the land. Time and again Compulsory Purchase Orders, were threatened a multitude of plans were put forward including shops, houses a new road and even a leisure center all oblivious to attempts to rework the mine or even the danger and cost of building over mine workings and their associated shafts. After the best part of a decade and High Court Challenges by South Crofty's owners, the RDA finally reluctantly gave in and 'allowed' the old tin mine to be. The implications of acting like lord and master were completely out of tune with the idea of public sector bodies serving the people and encouraging business. It does occur that the fortune spent fighting this protracted battle could have been spent better by both the mine owners on reopening and the RDA on other regeneration projects. (For those interested in the long and winding battle between the mine owners and the RDA here's the Falmouth Packet archive.)




South Crofty Mine Pool, the graffiti reads the words of a folk song by Chris Bryant:
CORNISH LADS ARE FISHERMEN AND CORNISH LADS ARE MINERS TOO,
BUT WHEN THE FISH AND TIN ARE GONE WHAT ARE THE CORNISH BOYS TO DO?
A lament at the loss of the industry but also indicative of the despair felt at the RDAs solutions and methods.
Photo taken from: http://www.cornwallcam.co.uk/bestofinland/scrofty2.htm

 The real challenge for the new LEP is to learn from these mistakes. To not sit in offices and draw up good schemes on paper without any regard for anything else, but to develop organic schemes that work with not against communities. Perhaps this is a little idealistic and that any plan has the possibility of running into opposition, but it is imperative that this opposition is dealt with properly. The bulldozer approach of the RDA seen at South Crofty was not good in terms of public relations, public service or business relations. The people that work in the RDA never seemed to realise that in life problems are best resolved by negotiation and reasoning not threats and ultimatums. Most importantly of all the RDA never seemed to grasp the idea that in a democracy state workers are public servants, employed to work with the people not against them, to promote consensus not conflict. Further the new LEP needs to look at what Cornwall is strong at and nurture existing industries into bigger ones. Hopefully the new LEP will not gamble with Cornish public money in the way the RDA did and invest in strong cases not outside chances.

I sincerely hope that the approach taken by members of Cornwall Council toward the Route Partnership scheme in Penzance is not indicative of what we can expect from the LEP. For the activities there ranked alongside the RDA in terms of bulldozer diplomacy....